Ramsay’s back!

Not that he’s been away of course, with Hell’s Kitchen just having finished and that followed on straight after The F Word. Our Gordon is in danger of being over exposed. Even Ken Barlow’s not on every week.

However I was still glad to see what I regard as his signature dish, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, back on the box, though it does feel a little formulaic and even setting the opener out in Spain couldn’t shake that "been there, done that" feeling.

Part of the problem is that Gordon’s inspirational style varies little from show to show. Several series in and it largely still consists of him swearing, looking exasperated and making reference to the size of the chef’s family jewels, before simplifying the menu and blaming any further problems on the head waiter.

It should be getting as boring as a bowl of tomato soup by now but somehow Gordon’s charisma and the apparent stupidity and stubbornness of those he sets out to help carry the thing through, though you do get the feeling that if some of these restaurateurs had just watched recordings of previous shows, they wouldn’t need Gordon’s presence at all.

Best sight of the first episode was the set piece in which our foul mouthed hero broke down experimental chef Lawrence’s stubbornness by putting him in a bull ring.

Box Clever

Call it ironic or call it sinister but my Sky+ box failed to record the episode of Watchdog which featured complaints about Sky+ boxes. Actually the box, which is getting a bit old now, is reliable for most of the time and any time a serious glitch has occurred, I’ve always found Sky Customer Services very helpful and willing to help resolve the problem.

Nicky Campbell and his merry team managed to find someone who had gone through eleven boxes. That really is unlucky but it does make it all the more sure that I’ll hang fire on getting a HD box until the early adopters have helped iron the glitches and the price drops considerably. Who knows, the BluRay v HD-DVD battle may have been won and lost by then.

I was a little unkind to The Gadget Show a couple of weeks back but fair play to them for launching a campaign for a free wi-fi network. Call me selfish but as a PDA and PSP user, I’d welcome this with open arms.

When I can find a wi-fi hotspot it 's usually overpriced – about a fiver for just an hour – and it won’t let me view streaming BBC Video, giving me a message that it’s not available outside the UK. Sort that out Auntie!

Dawn breaks

The rule about the middle classes either being evil or a doctor has been taken rather literally in EastEnders as Dawn attempts to Swann off with the slimy husband of the square’s latest GP. I don’t remember Doctor Legg having this complicated a social life. It looks like Dawn’s heading for yet another fall. Hooray for that.

Stepdad Keith seems completely lost these days without Rosie though, while Darren’s so distracted by his family’s shenanigans that he hasn’t even noticed that best mate Peter Beale has undergone a total body transplant.

Meanwhile, Phil Mitchell is starting to look like a romantic hero as he enters into a brief encounter with the drippy Stella. Is that the look of love in his life-etched face? Or wind? Hard to tell.

Tragic events brought back to life

It’s been nearly twenty years since the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry disaster. BBC One brought us a reminder of the terrible events of that night but used the current vogue from a dramatised documentary to bring it to our screens.

I’m becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this approach, certainly for events where there has been a mass loss of life and compelling as the accounts of the survivors were, I found the dramatic reconstruction very ghoulish and could have done without the scenes of passengers frantically banging on glass in the vain hope of rescue.

I’m not sure that it was necessary to stage those scenes to get the story across as it was the testimony of the survivors that was more important than telling the story with the aid of umpteen stunt men. I wonder whether the show would have made it onto prime time BBC One without that though.

Away with the fairies

Torchwood has improved immeasurably after those dodgy two opening episodes but it’s still daft as a brush and the more barmy it gets, the more seriously it seems to take itself.

You’d have thought that John Barrowman was auditioning for Hamlet rather than dealing with a tale about fairies at the bottom of the garden whisking children away to join their number. The whole thing was so surreal and bleak that it put me in mind of Sapphire and Steel only with a decent budget. It wasn’t a massive surprise then to learn that the episode was scripted by Peter J. Hammond.

Licence to Thrill

On the face of it, a clip show running down the top twenty two Bond themes seemed like a schedule filler. Not a bit of it. This was a illuminating journey into the history of Bond movie legend with some super anecdotes and wonderfully pithy comments.

The at times acerbic commentary was brought wonderfully to life by the rich tones of Geoffrey Palmer while at the centre of most of the tales was composer and orchestrator John Barry, whose musical talent is matched by his no nonsense straight talking style.

I doubt he’d ever agree to do it but I reckon he’d make a marvellous inmate for Celebrity Big Brother.

This easily filled two hours of telly and I was left with the feeling that loads of other good stuff may well have ended up on the cutting room floor. In addition to the new insights it gave us into the Bond creative process it also evoked memories of all those wonderful movies.

The biggest eye opener for me was that the classic The Look of Love featuring Dusty Springfield’s smokily seductive vocal was written especially for the spoof version of Casino Royale. It certainly fared better than the movie.

I put on my Best of Bond CD straight afterwards at top volume, presumably to the chagrin of my neighbours. It was the perfect appetiser for the new movie.

Can’t stand the new theme tune though.

Fun and Games

Game show In The Grid would be a piece of forgettable fluff were it not for host Les Dennis, whose years of experience in the genre enabled him to rack up the tension and excitement.

It also highlights just how good he was as host of Family Fortunes which is unfortunate timing for Vernon Kay, whose celebrity version is somewhat lacking.

It’s obvious that Vernon is a fan of the show but as yet he hasn’t shown the natural feel for it that Les seemed to have and I see no value at all in having celebrity families over common or garden ones.